On Saturday morning I WON! I ran a 5K PR of 21:16 at the Bobcat Bolt in Durham, NH to place 1st female and 10th overall. The win was more than just a hard effort on a good day, it was the emphatic exclamation point punctuating the end of one of the most emotional and stressful week of my life to this point [I feel like I've written this sentence before...like five weeks ago after Jack's second surgery. I guess you never know the extreme of any emotion until you have gone through it. I'm still processing the week. The best way I do that is through words. So at some point I will gather all the stray sentences that are flitting through my mind, put pen to paper and share that with you.] I crossed the finish line and turned, beaming toward my husband. I walked towards him pumping my fist in the air and did a little happy leap. There's part of me that feels totally ridiculous about my little celebration, I mean 21:16 isn't the greatest time. There are plenty of people out there faster than me. Maybe if it hand't been so hot and humid, if the course was flat, if Jack and Sophia hadn't been up all night, blah, blah, blah...I could go on all day about the "what ifs." The truth is that I ran as fast as I could for that day against the people who showed up. In the end that is all you can do. And on Saturday that got me a PR and first place.

Here's how it went:

Warm-up: I showed up an hour early to register and run my warm up. I knew I wanted to do a two mile warm up. It seems that in the past few weeks I run better at track when I have run in the morning. And on my tempo runs I've noticed that I don't really warm up and feel loose until the two mile mark. So I went out for a nice, easy two miles. I ran from the finish to the two mile marker and back and I am SO glad I did. This allowed me to get a glimpse of the last mile of the course. I surveyed the little hills, the pot holes the turns and worked out my strategy for the last mile. I think this was KEY. It allowed me to race the last mile and pass the two women who were in front of me.

After my warm up I nursed Jack quickly, changed to my track shoes (I wore my Saucony Shays for the race), kissed my hubs, ate a few PowerBar Gels and head to the start line.

Start line: The race was a benefit and memorial for two brothers, Josh and Nate Hardy. Josh died in 1993 after a battle with brain cancer and his brother Nate was killed in combat in Iraq in 2008. They were remembered at the start of the race. I have to say that I like participating in races with a cause. They mean something. And it is nice to know that my race registration is going to be used for a purpose. After a few words from the family and our local senator. I started to size up the competition. There were three women standing near me who looked fast. But I had no idea if they were running the 5K or 10K, both started at the same time in the same place and followed the same course for the first 5K.

Mile 1-2: I opted to wear my Timex Ironman and not my Garmin because I wanted to "feel" the pace as much as possible. I've developed a really good internal pace calculator in my track sessions. I'm pretty steady. I wanted to put this to the test in a race and not constantly be glancing down at my Garmin. Plus I knew that if I glanced at my Garmin and saw "slow" paces in the first two miles I'd over-correct and run too fast. So no Garmin. I was trusting that there would be mile markers...there wasn't a mile marker. Which didn't throw me, because I knew there would be a marker at mile 2 'cause I had seen it on my warm up. This put me at ease.

My husband's advice to me before the start was, "If you feel like you're holding back in the first half then you'll do well in the second." I tried to stick to that. Through the first mile there were five women in front of me. We climbed a decent hill in the first mile. I knew that I wanted to take the hill with a solid effort, but not try to charge up it. I did just that. I knew that the second half of the race was downhill/flat and that is where my speed would come. So I let go of those women in front of me. Focused on running my own race and "holding" back. Every time I got preoccupied with what the other women were doing I could feel myself speed up. I'd reign it in a little and repeat the mantra "hold it steady."

As we approached the 2 mile mark I did a 10 second pick up. I increased my pace to "pick off" one of the women in 10 seconds and then eased back to the pace I had been at. This brought me into what I thought was fifth place and closed the gap on the two girls ahead of me who I thought were 3rd and 4th. I went through the 2 mile mark at 14:13, which equates to 7:06 pace.

Mile3-3.1: This is where I started to make my move. I did another 10 second pick up which brought me to the shoulder of the girl who I thought was fourth. I recovered from the pick up, but kept pushing the pace and passed her. I started closing in on the girl I thought was in third. I knew that with 1K to 800m left was where I would run my hardest. I picked up the pace even more and hung on the shoulder of that girl (and she was just a girl: 14 years old:). I knew I could pass her, but I didn't want to do it too soon only to have her pass me on her kick. I hung on her shoulder until just before the 3 mile marker, then I made my move. I kicked up into a sprint (although from the photos it looks like I'm slumping into the ground, not sprinting towards the finish) and passed her and one other guy.

As I came down the chute I heard "And the unofficial first female, Sarah Canney of the Rochester!" I couldn't believe it! I thought I'd just battled for third place overall, not sprinted into first! Turns out the two women who were still in front of me were running the 10K and I had in fact just won my first race! I ran the last 1.1 in 7:03 (6:24 pace).

Clearly the face of a champion. Haha. I have pictures of me in labor with my children where my face is more relaxed than this.

We waited around for a the awards where I was given a plaque (much to the disappointment of my three-year old daughter who was convinced that I didn't really win because I didn't get one of the "gold medals" that were also sitting on the table.) But what was better than the plaque or a medal was the $100 check I got. But honestly that is just the icing on the cake of a great day, coming at the end of a tough week.

After the race a reporter from our local paper came over to ask me a few questions. You can read his report HERE. I love the phrase "won her first career race in 21:16," as if all I do is run local races for cash prizes. If only;) A degree in English Literature and I'm quoted in the paper as saying "Oh my gosh. It's awesome!" (queue Teen Girl Squad). Now that is WINNING.

--Sarah

A PR and a Win

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